Trustee
The Human Capital Initiative (HCI) is a national effort to transform Bangladesh’s development trajectory by prioritizing investments in health, education, and skills—the three foundational pillars of human capital. We believe that sustainable development and inclusive economic growth begin with strong, healthy, and capable people.
As Bangladesh aspires to become an upper-middle-income country, closing its human capital gap is more urgent than ever. HCI is committed to designing evidence-based policies, mobilizing strategic investments, and fostering innovation to strengthen the capabilities of every citizen—especially children, youth, and women in underserved areas.
HCI serves as a platform for research, policy dialogue, program innovation, and partnership. We aim to work closely with government agencies, development partners, academic institutions, and civil society to advance a bold vision: a Bangladesh where no talent is wasted, and every individual has the opportunity to thrive.
HCI has been endeavouring to engage with all HC related stakeholders. The main motivation for the partnership is that such a partnership will help sharing responsibilities, enriching each other through knowledge sharing, generation of HCI related knowledge through collaborative effort, extending financial and technical support to HCI to facilitate the achievement of HCI goals, helping in identifying lessons learned from different interventions and incorporating those in future interventions.
Poor people in developing countries are suffering from persistently high food inflation, and concerns about food insecurity are once again dominating policy discussions. To ensure food security, many governments in developing countries are emphasizing the need to increase agricultural productivity, especially among smallholder farmers who face severe challenges from climate change in a fragile environment.
As described in this book, Agricultural Finance in Developing Countries: Challenges and Opportunities, agricultural productivity among farmers is strongly linked to financial inclusion. However, the 10 chapters of the book clearly show that smallholder farmers are still credit constrained. Emerging financial services, such as microfinance and mobile finance, help smallholder farmers meet daily needs and payments but are not large enough to help them make long-term investments to improve agricultural productivity and, hence, food security.
Dean and CEO
Asian Development Bank Institute
Our team is united by a shared commitment to advancing human development through better health, quality education, and lifelong skills.
Working to Improve the Human Capital for a Prosperous Nation
Borak Unique Heights, Flat 11/A, 117 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka 1000.
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